Once upon a time, a darling blond came up to me at church and asked if I would help her surprise her fiance! Whoa La......a chance to surprise someone, help with a dream and create a memory for life, and a wedding on top of all of that, I jumped at the chance.
This blond beauty said her fiance asked her to marry him on a bridge in Cades Cove in the mountains. How romantic! So this story began to deepen with love and a wedding, how could I miss.
I love weddings. Well the request came in May, the wedding was to be in October. I don't do well with secrets, because I usually get really excited about romantic things, and this was going to be part of the wedding ceremony. How was this going to work, well keep reading and the story does unfold!
Kalia Louise Goerler and Michael Jason Jarman were about to experience the most wonderful months of their life so far. A wedding is a very exciting event for the family, friends and in this case the town of Trenton.
So when I attended church on Sundays I would always say a little to Kalia and she would give me information like pictures of the bridge where he proposed and what colors were going to be used in the wedding. How this was going to be a surprise for Jason and she wanted to make sure the bridge was drawn so it looked like they would be standing on it during the ceremony. Details.
Sure, no problem, I thought! Perspective is a growing thing to painters. Each and every new drawing I began to draw requires me to study the object, work on the light, and bones of the apparatus. Plus get Tony to work with me regarding perspective. This time it happened to be a bridge. I am not really familiar with too many bridges, so I asked Kalia to sit down with me while we plotted the picture out. We checked the Internet and found the bridge, it looked simple enough to me, but it was flipped in the picture. I needed it to become a mirror image because that would be easier for me to paint and hit it with light. So I sent the picture to Claudia Henley who owns Air Frames and Art in Trenton. I emailed the picture and she sent it back with magic. The bridge was flipped and it was so easy to place in the picture, but then came the water, the rocks, the trees, the colors and all of this had to be placed in the picture because we mostly had only water from the pictures on the trip.
I did a block in and invited Ms. Kalia back to look at the layout, and she was pleased. She was so easy with the appointments and I wondered if she had leaked the project to Jason yet. No, she had not and she was going to keep this project secret until the wedding.
I would see both of them at church, and speak briefly, because I didn't want Jason to figure out I was in cahoots with his future wife, we had a plan do not tell anyone.
So I started this project seven days before we left on vacation, it was 60 percent done before we left, but while I was on vacation (helping my daughter move into her new house) I kept thinking about this bridge. I thought the bridge should not be the most important part of the picture, the tree should be. There is a large red leaved tree in the picture and it stands tall, firm and is lighted with the natural light of life.
This spoke to me. Kalia and Jason lives will forever be changed on October 9, 2010. They stand in front of friends, family, and well wishers and commit themselves to each other and God. Their verse was "There are three things that last, faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these sf love. I Corinthians 13:13. So the tree of Life is God. God is the tree that shades, reveals, protects and creates life in our lives. So these two lovely people were about to walk across the bridge from two to one. They would become husband and wife, a holy union under the eyes and blessings of God.
May turned to June, June to July, July to August, August to September, September to October and the final 5 days before the wedding, the picture, grew in stature and grace. As I always say it is not me that paints it is the brush with the Spirit of Awe Winds. I believe God breathes and I feel his grace, and my hand moves, thereby creating the picture for Kalia and Jason.
Well, the week came, Thursday night she was in the church preparing for the wedding, we got the call to bring the picture (4 foot by 8 foot) and a screwdriver with wood blocks and braces. She had a desk we were going to attach the braces thereby making a very large easel to hold the picture. We arrived in the explorer, the rear hatch open wide, the painting hanging out, with me holding the painting from the second set of seats. Grandma and Tony were in the front as we arrived, and we didn't see Jason. We passed right by his house on the way to the church, but Tony had turned the painting backward when putting it into the car just in case he was outside looking at the road. We cleared his house, got to the church, unpacked the painting, walked it into the church and she was happy. And you know that made us happy.
She had placed the painting and the desk just beautifully so the light above resonated upon it and made it look wonderful. She and Jason would be standing in front of this picture as they remembered their months toward becoming one.
After we left she called Jason and he saw the painting for the first time. He liked it also. Yea, success!
We attended the wedding, which was beautiful too many wonderful little details to much to explain, but I can tell you this Kalia can put on a wedding, it was wonderful and very personal. The first wedding I have seen using a piece of art to capture the audience, the groom and herself. They looked as if they were standing on a bridge, waiting to sit underneath the tree of light, as they grew old together.
After the wedding, we visited the reception line and Jason said "we will talk when I get back about keeping secrets".....he wasn't serious, because there was a huge twinkle in his eye. He was married to a woman he loved and they will live happily ever after....
k
No comments:
Post a Comment